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Key words in this issue: Service Photographer | Stock Photographer | Catch-22 | City Clerk's Office | Phantom Husbands | Ken Lieberman | Brenda Tharp | Nixvue | Google | Archival | Poly | Digital Workflow | Theme | Recycle | Stock Photo
NEWSWORDS: Magazine Advertising | Camera Phones | Sylvia Plachy | Paper | Eddie Adams | Birds | Yale | Plant Closure | Ofoto | Features
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## PhotoAimLite monthly newsletter for September ## 408
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PhotoAimLite, the monthly newsletter from PhotoSource
International. <http://www.photosource.com> ==>
ISSN 1530-0511
If you no longer wish to receive PhotoAimLite, see the instructions at the end of this newsletter.
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ARE YOU A 'SERVICE' PHOTOGRAPHER OR A 'STOCK' PHOTOGRAPHER?
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Know thyself was the advice Plato gave his students. Good advice for the stock photographer, too, who wishes to market his/her photo illustrations.
To apply Plato's suggestion: If you know where you fit, in the vast spectrum of the world of stock photography, you'll have easy sledding when it comes to marketing your pictures.
Why? First of all, there's no one quite like you. You have a treasure of experiences, knowledge, know-how, and interests. Plus, you are a talented photographer. When you know your own strengths and select your markets accordingly, you'll find that photobuyers like to work with stock photographers whose file of stock photos match their layout needs.
Know thyself. You are an important resource to stock photo editors, if you do your homework and find the photobuyers whose photo needs match the photos you like to take.
'SERVICE' PHOTOGRAPHY:
Many newcomers to the field of stock photo marketing initially set their goals toward advertising, PR, industrial, fashion, and assignment photography. These and similar "work for hire" areas are what we call "service" photography. Clients pay for your services - at your day rate - to shoot their visual needs. There are drawbacks, however. Assignments don't come easy. Service photography is a fast-paced existence. ("We need the picture yesterday.") The ulcer incidence is high. Your pictures rarely belong to you. (Work-for-hire means the client owns the copyright -- and the negatives.) Your pictures are often "art-directed." ("We want a girl with blonde hair and a red dress.") The resulting photographs have limited "lasting value." (Have you ever looked at a graphic-design annual of the year's best photographs? --from 1965?) However, the large fees may make the service photography area worthwhile to you.
STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY:
Stock photography, on the other hand, is at the other end of the spectrum. Stock photographers deal via the Internet, UPS, FedEx, and the mails, selling photos they like to take, on their own timetable, and which they direct to selected photobuyers who welcome new talent to add to their select list of suppliers.
Know thyself. Are you more interested in selling yourself (service photography) or your photos (stock photography)? Do you prefer the glamour of a whirlwind lifestyle or the rewards of the quietude of living at a self-directed pace?
Rohn Engh is director of PhotoSource International and publisher of the weekly PhotoStockNotes. Pine Lake Farm, 1910 35th Road, Osceola, WI 54020 USA Email: info@photosource.com Fax: 1 715 248 7394
Web site: www.photosource.com
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White Mailers
Sending a disk or slides? Look like a pro. Stiff white cardboard mailers are available at: MAILERS, 575 Bennett Rd, Elk Grove Village, IL 60007, Attn: Pat Pulver; http://www.mailersco.com . Phone: 1 800 872-6670. Fax: 1 847 731-2603.
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YOU AND THE LAW
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by Joel Hecker, Esq
...absurdity has its limits---
Court Untangles Bureaucratic Catch-22
Many photographers, and others, have at one time or another faced the nightmare of bureaucratic rules which seemingly have no possible resolution.
A recent New York County Supreme Court decision untied such a knot with appropriate references to Joseph Heller's Catch-22 and Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Although the case did not involve photography matters, the issues are universal.
In 1988, the petitioner obtained a marriage license from the City Clerk and was married to husband number one. They had two children whose births were duly certified, recorded and filed with the City Department of Health. In 1995, husband number one died in an accident. His death was also duly certified and recorded with the applicable authorities.
In 1998, the petitioner obtained the requisite marriage license from the City Clerk and married husband number two. The marriage certificate was duly recorded as required. Unfortunately a divorce followed which was (of course) duly filed on April 14, 2004.
Petitioner met and wanted to marry husband number three. As stated in the decision, "she took the familiar trip to the City Clerk's Office to obtain a marriage license." Instead, she was informed she was ineligible (!) for another marriage license because, according to the City Clerk's records, she was concurrently married to two other men!
Apparently the City Clerk had issued a marriage license to a woman with a similar name but to a different husband on November 20, 1986, and yet another license to a similar name on June 4, 1994 to yet another husband. The City contended that these licenses blocked the issuance of a new one even though the City issued her first license and accepted her money (filing fees) after this 1986 license was issued, and issued the second license and again accepted her money in 1996.
THE PHANTOM HUSBANDS
Petitioner, however, was not to be denied. She retained an attorney and a private investigator to straighten out the "mess." The Court described in detail the extensive efforts made to find what it calls the phantom husbands, who apparently really were phantoms. For example, the address provided to the Clerk by one of them was an invalid address.
Want to read more of this article? Go to: http://www.photoaim.com/legal114.html
ADS WE'VE READ
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KEN LIEBERMAN LABS
World renowned for highest quality color & B&W prints for exhibition and portfolio to mural sizes. Complete print mounting department. Phone: 1 212 633-0500. Web: http://www.lieberman-labs.com .
WORKSHOPS
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THE ART OF NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY, with Brenda Tharp. October 10 - 16, 2004. This workshop will present advanced composition, color, gesture, and visual design concepts, and demonstrate how they help to create more dynamic photographs. Additional techniques to interpret subjects artistically will be covered, including fill-flash, graduated filters, and much more. Tuition: $850; Lab Fee: $110. Contact: Maine Photographic Workshops, P.O. Box 200, 2 Central St, Rockport, ME 04856. Phone toll free: 1 877 577-7700 Fax: 1 207 236-2558. E-mail: info@theworkshops.com . Web: http://www.theworkshops.com .
SCENIC MOUNTAINS & WATERS OF CHINA. October 17 - November 1, 2004. This 16-day tour will include the misty peaks of magical Huangshan (the Yellow Emperor's Mountain), Li River, West Lake; Shanghai, Beijing & the Great Wall. Cost: $3,695 per person, for land only. The land price includes four domestic flights and all ground transportation, hotels, most meals, and guides. Not included are the visa for China, person expenses, international departure tax from Shanghai and the end of the tour, and individual tips. Contact: Photo Explorer Tours, 2506 Country Village, Ann Arbor MI 48103-6500. Phone: 1 800 315-4462. Fax: 1 734 996-1440. E-mail: DECoxPhoto@aol.com . Web: http://www.denniscox.com/tours/china.htm
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Did you know most email fraud originates from free email accounts (like Yahoo!(r) Mail and Hotmail)? Did you know that these accounts may be shut off if inactive for 30 days, that they may not move with you if you change ISPs, and that they can be chock-full of annoying ads?
A personalized email account can free you from the free-email trap. Go Daddy email accounts work with both Microsoft(r) Outlook and Outlook Express. So put your domain to work today with a personalized email account (like "you@yourdomain.com"). Go Daddy offers three different accounts, each recently upgraded to include spam and virus protection. Your inbox will stay protected, with spam and viruses eliminated before you ever see them.
For more information, go to the PhotoSource International web page > http://www.photosource.cm < and click on the banner at the top of our home page.
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NOTEPAD
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by David Arnold
"If It Can Fail..."
In a recent article in PhotoStockNotes, freelance travel photographer and PSN columnist Jeremy Hoare related how "the Nixvue Vista 30GB portable hard drive I bought failed so spectacularly, losing the 250 pictures I'd already downloaded and erased from the CF cards." There's an important message here, namely this: "If it's a technological tool it can fail, and if it has moving parts it will fail." The only question is when, not if. No solution is completely safe, but redundancy comes close.
Like Hoare, we also opted for the Nixvue portable hard drive for storing our images while traveling. But we bought two of them. "That's understandable, there are two of you." No, that's not it. We bought the larger capacity 40GB version, and we each back up all of our shots to both units. If one fails, we've got the other.
Similarly we have two 160GB hard disks in our primary computer. After uploading new images or completing a Photoshop session, the top-level images folder is copied to the second hard disk. If one fails, we've got the other. Once a week we back up our images to yes, you guessed it, two DVDs-from two different manufacturers. One we store near-at-hand in our home office, the other in a safe-deposit box at our bank. There are no 100 percent guarantees, but with redundant backups you can come pretty close. And the next time technological tool termination attacks, just call out the reserves.
David Arnold is a travel photographer who has been writing about travel, photography, and computers since 1980. His photos have appeared in Popular Photography, Petersen's Photographic, US Air Magazine, The Rotarian, the TWA Calendar, and elsewhere. His Web site is at www.arnoldrutman.com. His PhotoSourceBANK stock list is at www.photosourcebank.com/2181. Phone: 1 541 683-3455. E-mail: david@arnoldrutman.com . http://www.arnoldrutman.com .
Archival vs. Poly Pages?
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This question might at first seem a moot point, now that 'digital' has arrived. But please be aware that many photobuyers, especially at graphic houses and ad agencies, still require slides rather than digital images.
I have not figured out whether the question of 'archival' sleeves for slide storage is myth, hype, or reality. At my seminars, people would tell me of their problems with polyvinylchloride (the cheaper, sturdy, sleeves). However, those particular complaints were from people who lived in places like New Orleans, Washington DC, and San Francisco -- probably the most humid places in the nation.
One reality: the archival sleeves don't 'hold' slides in the sleeves well. Example: An art director holds an archival slide page up to the light; something slips out unnoticed onto the floor, the art director steps on it and says, "What's this under my foot?" There's not much archival quality to a slide that's been stepped on.
My recommendation for this controversy:
Store your slides in your filing cabinet in 'archival' pages, and send your slides to a photobuyer in the thick, strong, 'poly' pages. -Rohn Engh
The Memory Card: Develop Your Digital Workflow
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By David Arnold and Gail Rutman
Pressing your digital camera's shutter is only the beginning of the photographic process. The rest-the steps you take and the sequence in which you take them to move your images from camera to market-is known as "workflow." Your goal: to decrease the work and increase the flow.
After uploading images to your computer, review them in Photoshop's file browser and delete all but the best. Then use the file browser's Automate > Batch Rename command to rename them. In the old days photographers used cryptic codes that identified some combination of subject matter, where shot, when shot, where filed, etc. But with computer storage you can keep the numbering simple, then embed keywords in your images so you can find them on your computer and buyers can find them on the web. We use a sequential 7-digit number, followed by the appropriate extension: .crw (Canon raw file), .psd (layered Photoshop file), .tif (flattened master image), or .jpg (low-resolution web image). For keywording you can use Photoshop's file browser or a stock management program such as StockView (http://www.hindsightltd.com), but the best keywording solution we've found is Image Info Toolbox (http://www.picturefinder.com/software/iit, 48 euros [approximately $60], free trial version). In addition to its many time-saving features, IIT lets you create your own keyword catalog, or import an existing catalog (such as the one at http://www.controlledvocabulary.com/imagedatabases/iitkeywords.html) and augment or modify it.
A critical workflow step is raw conversion. The jpg format is appropriate for snapshooters, studio photographers with absolute control over conditions, and sports photographers who can't risk raw's slight in-camera delay, but not most stock photographers. To learn about raw workflow read Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop, by Bruce Fraser (Peachpit Press, 2004, 256 pages, $34.99). If you're serious about digital photography, this book is essential.
Here are some additional resources to help you optimize your workflow: (1) "Achieving a Better Digital Workflow"
Want to read more of this article? Go to: http://www.photoaim.com/mcard6.html
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This month's featured photographer on PhotoSourceFolio: Florian Meyer:
(http://www.photosourcefolio.com)
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Can you advertise your stock photography 365 days a year to photobuyers? The answer is Yes. Watch upcoming issues of PhotoStockNotes for details about the new PhotoSourceBOOK 2005 from PhotoSource International, a powerful and unique desktop directory of stock photographers for photobuyers. Only $195. Check it out at www.photosourcebook.com . -RE
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QUOTE
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"Pick a theme and work it to exhaustion...the subject must be something you truly love or truly hate." - Dorothea Lange
"In photography, the smallest thing can become a big subject, an insignificant human detail can become a leitmotiv. We see and we make seen as a witness to the world around us; the event, in its natural activity, generates an organic rhythm of forms." - Henri Cartier Bresson
GOODSTUFF
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PHOTOGRAPHERS ON LOCATION WITH CHARLIE WAITE, by Charlie Waite. Filled with images, this is a special collection of more than 30 fascinating articles from Outdoor Photography's popular "On Location" series. The book follows world-renowned photographer Charlie Waite as he visits a range of locations, from mountains to castles to coastlines, with a group of amateurs. Along the way, he passes on instruction and inspiration. (ISBN: 1-86108-342-4; $19.95) Contact: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. 387 Park Ave S, New York NY 10016-8810. Phone: 1 800 805-5489.
ON-LINE
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Recycle Your Computer for FREE
Recycling computer components, especially CRT monitors, is becoming even more important. Some states have even enacted a (small) recycling fee that is added to the price of any monitor or laptop/notebook at the time of sale. But the whole point is to keep computers, monitors, and other recyclable components, which often contain hazardous materials, out of landfills. During the summer, Office Depot stores, in partnership with H-P, will take any manufacturer's old computer and other electronics (such as copiers, fax machines, cell phones, and TVs under 27") for recycling at no cost to you. This special offer will run through Sept. 6, so now is the time to clean out your office or garage. And if the program is successful (by whatever means they are measuring success), it may be extended. Note that Office Depot will only accept one "product" per customer per day, and that a computer system counts as one product. So let's help them be successful, and reclaim some of your wasted storage space today! Remember, most computer companies charge $20-$35 for computer recycling, and you're not being an earth-friendly person if you dump the stuff in your trash (and you may be breaking the law as most municipalities have restrictions against dumping hazardous waste in with the regular trash).-BH
Eliminate the Errors
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The player comes off the court in a tennis game and says, "If I hadn't made those mistakes, I would have won!"
Exactly right. Mistakes are not the domain only of amateurs, but of the pros as well. Golf, pool, chess -- whatever the competition - success at anything -- whether at the newcomer or veteran level -- is a distillation process. Eliminate errors and you have success.
In stock photo marketing, the same holds true. If your pictures are not selling, perhaps you are trying to sell pictures that are not marketable -- a big mistake.
An excellent wedding picture will have limited marketability beyond the people in the picture. The same holds true for most personal portraits. Many competition entries, well-suited for photo contests, are usually not marketable to the workaday publishing world. Abstracts, hot air balloons, close-ups of flowers, and Washington Monument shots are marketable but on a specialized basis -- and in the company of an overwhelming amount of heavy competition.
To avoid photo marketing failure, your best teachers are the markets themselves: magazines, textbooks, books, TV specials and so on. Let these markets show you what they want. Analyze their picture content and style.
You'll find they consistently feature pictures with these elements:
1. Background is uncluttered.
2. Subject is reasonably close up.
3. Bold in design, poster-like.
4. When people are in the pictures (90% of the time), they are they are involved in meaningful activities or dialog.
Give yourself a quick course in how to take marketable illustrations by selecting a published image and then going out and taking a photograph just like it. You'll be rewarded with new insight into lighting, composition, and the handling of your models.
Want to read more of this article? Go to: http://www.photoaim.com/ed75.html
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YOU WILL BE CONTACTED by photobuyers, if you're in the PhotoSourceBOOK 2005 directory. Now's the time to take advantage of this low, low fee: $195 for your own half/page. (Includes indexing of 600-photo descriptive words in the "Yellow Pages" index section.) Your entry will also entitle you to a full year of posting an unlimited number of images on your own private PhotoSourceLIGHTBOX! For details and a special Early Bird Bonus: www.photosourcebook.com
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Internet Calling
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This is where you get a special phone, connect it to your broadband Internet connection, and start using the Internet phone as if it were a real, hard-wired phone for making and receiving calls. And just like a regular phone, there is a monthly phone bill, which, depending on your calling patterns, can be significantly less expensive than a regular phone, and with a lot more calling features. Technically, it's called VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol. There are some issues yet to be fixed, such as the lack of 9-1-1 calling (in most cases) and the fact that (unless your broadband modem and your Internet telephone are on a UPS) if you lose local electrical power, you lose your phone as well. Other issues include nefarious offshore companies having a legitimate U.S. area code and thus appearing above-board. One great advantage is that you can generally request any available area code for your phone. So, if you're in the hinterlands of Nebraska, you could easily have a phone number with a New York area code. For Internet phones, a New York City area code (212) is one of the most frequently requested, and thus hardest to get. The other popular ones are Beverly Hills (310), San Francisco (415), Los Angeles (213), Boston (617), and Chicago (312). Some estimates are that by the end of 2004, there will be a little under one million Internet phones in use. Vonage (www.vonage.com) is one of the more popular companies, but you can search the Internet using "internet phone company" as your search term.
Managing Your Digital Photos
Picasa is a free downloadable program that runs on Windows for organizing your photos, creating slideshows, and more. It is a free program available for downloading from www.picasa.com. If you want to give it a try (we're not endorsing), let us know how it works for you. And for whatever its worth, Google recently acquired Picasa.
Bill Hopkins is the Webmaster of PhotoSourceFolio* (www.photosourcefolio.com) and a regular contributor to PhotoStockNotes. Send comments via e-mail to wh@photosourcefolio.com. Fax: 1 818 831-0916. For on-line questions, contact Bill on the Kracker Barrel at www.photosource.com/board.
*Display 6 of your own images for photobuyers to view, on your page on the PhotoSource website.
Watch for developments in the field of stock photography in PhotoAimLite's
PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE NEWS
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You'll be the first to know...
Note: If the URL is long, it may extend to two lines. In that case - clicking on it won't work. Instead, "copy and paste" the URL.
MAGAZINE ADVERTISING Growth Sustained in August
http://www.creativepro.com/story/news/21907.html
Kodak hears call of CAMERA PHONES , answers big time
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2004/09/20/kodak_hears_call_of_camera_phones_answers_big_time/?rss_id=Boston%20Globe%20--%20Business%20News
SYLVIA PLACHY Honored by Women In Photography International at the 2nd
Annual Lucie Awards;
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/9/prwebxml158971.php
Paper Tips: How to Choose the Right PAPER - Choosing the most appropriate
quality paper for your project can be a daunting task. How to decide? Here's
10 tips for choosing the right paper for your job.
http://www.creativepro.com/story/feature/21904.html
Photographer EDDIE ADAMS Dies - Eddie Adams, a photojournalist whose
half-century of arresting work was defined by a single frame - a Pulitzer
Prize-winning Associated Press photo of a communist guerrilla being executed
in a Saigon street during the Vietnam War
http://cbsnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment_story_263215438.html
Photographer fascinated with BIRDS , nature scenes - Nature photographer Bill
Price started taking his own pictures in 1976, because he couldn't afford
to buy wildlife prints. http://www.thelancasternews.com/articles/2004/09/17/features/features01_price.txt
Photo professors take on a bigger picture - The head of the YALE Photography
Department -- the "best faculty in the country" -- Papageorge still pursues
poetry, but through his photos.
http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=26257
Digital photography prompts Melbourne Kodak PLANT CLOSURE - "These closures
have been caused by the fundamental change in consumer behaviour driven by
the increasing popularity of digital photography, in Australia and
worldwide." http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/business/0,39023166,39159710,00.htm
Kodak hears call of camera phones, answers big time - Kodak last week
launched a service that lets people who subscribe to its OFOTO.com online
digital photography service transfer pictures they've taken with a
conventional digital camera to a cellphone
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2004/09/20/kodak_hears_call_of_camera_phones_answers_big_time/
Framed and Exposed: Buying a Digital Camera, Part 5 - Camera manufacturers
are packing more innovative features into their digital models, such as
video capture, voice annotation, and auto bracketing. What do these FEATURES
do, and more importantly, do you need them?
http://www.creativepro.com/story/feature/21884.html
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PhotoAimLite is a collection of excerpts from our weekly newsletter, PhotoStockNotes, available through the web anywhere in the world $5.00 per month. (We now have it available in German.) http://www.photosource.com/psnintro.html
Feel free to forward this issue of PhotoAimLite to a photographer friend.
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BUILD YOUR LIST of editorial photobuyers -- subscribe to the weekly PhotoStockNotes newsletter ($14.99 per year for 52 issues). In the third week of each month you receive photobuyer updates, new buyer addresses, and editor changes. Sign-up at www.photostocknotes.com to receive this letter every Wednesday evening.
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PhotoAimLite monthly newsletter is a product of PhotoSource International, Rohn Engh, Director, who is solely responsible for its contents. Stock Photo !
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Next Month: Which Photo Management Software?
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LOOKING FOR A HARD-TO-FIND PHOTO/ It's simple. Using the search engine Google, in the search bar, type in the keyword(s) describing your photo need, then a space, then the word photosource. Presto! The name of a photographer(s) having that particular photo in his/her file will come up at the top of your screen. Contact the photographer, and request a lightBOX viewing. Then negotiate a fee. >www.google.com<
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